activities as sport or any physical leisure

activities is
because they are more concerned about their body image (Cheah, Azahadi, Phang
& Hazilah, 2017). According to Chang & Tsai (2015), men and women who
engaged in leisure time physical activity consistently are having low risk of
cognitive decline. Women are also considered to have more responsibilities of
care compared to men especially for their families and they think that it is
not important for them to involve in leisure activities
(Zhang, Feng, Lacanienta, & Zhen, 2017). Being married and having
children act as barriers where the individuals will have limited time to engage
or participate in leisure activity due to housekeeping work and childcare. The
barriers also can cause declination in the frequency of leisure activity Muniz
et al., (2014, as cited in Oliveira-Brochado, Quelhas Brito &
Oliveira-Brochado, 2017).

A study made by
Oliveira-Brochado, Quelhas Brito & Oliveira-Brochado (2017) reported that leisure activity such as sport
does not have any correlation with age in a linear or a non-linear way but some
recent studies showed that low engagement in leisure activity levels with age
should be interpreted with caution such as to relate the variables with
frequency of participation because upper age individuals (56-65 years old)
involve in leisure activity (sport) more often compared to lower age
individuals (16-25 years old). Younger people are engaging actively in physical
leisure activity because they face less constrains compared to older people as
shown by the statistic that people’s age will lessen the probability of
engagement in physical activity by 0.3% (Cheah, Azahadi, Phang & Hazilah,
2017). In contrast, another study stated that older individuals showed more
concern and aware about their well-being so, they are more interested in
engaging in leisure activity (Lera-López & Rapún-Gárate, 2007). Individuals
with chronic illness are found to engage more frequent in leisure activity such
as sport or any physical leisure activities because they are having good
perception of being healthier. They emphasize that leisure activity like sports
may have therapeutic effect and can improve their health Muniz et al., (2014,
as cited in Oliveira-Brochado, Quelhas Brito & Oliveira-Brochado, 2017). In
contrast, individuals with poor health condition, they are less likely to start
a physical activity routine and thus live a physically inactive lifestyle
(Eberth & Smith, 2010).

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According to Cheah
et al., (2017) individuals with higher salary participate more frequent in
leisure such as physical activity compared to individuals with lower salary
because it restricted them from accessing to any facilities such as sports. It
can be related with administrative duties in employment position where the
teachers with higher position are having more income compared to teachers with lower
position and the chance in accessing to any facilities in order to engage in
leisure activities also differ. Previous study in Malaysia by Cheah & Poh
(2014) revealed that minor ethnic are more likely to engage and practice
physically active lifestyle compared to major ethnic but there are unclear
reasons about the situation so other researcher can study about the association
between ethnicity and leisure engagement either in physical, social or
cognitive leisure activities. Ferguson, Frost, & Hall (2012) stated in
their study that elementary to high school age teachers who exposed with high
work strain, student misbehaviour, and low quality of employment conditions can
lead to depressive and anxious symptoms among teachers where according to
Toyoshima, Kaneko, & Motohashi (2016), increasing job pressure can affect
leisure time physical activities so school teachers will have restriction to
engage in leisure activities due to high work strain and lack of time.

2.4 Sleep quality affected by work stress
among teachers and it’s relation with leisure activities

According to Desouky & Allam (2017),
occupational stress among teachers can be defines as response when facing work
load that not matches to their resources, abilities, knowledge, and needs to
manage the stress. Being a teacher can be physically and mentally challenged
since teaching is an occupation that consumes a lot of energy in everyday work
in the classroom. In addition, teachers also have their personal and familial
commitments that can lead them to stress. Work loads among teachers mostly
occur when they manage activities, develop time-tables, plan lessons, develop
curriculums, give information, examine and evaluate students’ performance,
conducts extra-curricular activities, monitors classes, supervise discipline
problems in school especially for discipline teachers, retained records, and
motivate students by words and actions. Work environment in school was found to
have significant correlation with stress levels among teachers (Desouky &
Allam, 2017). According to Simone, Cicotto & Lampis (2016), sources of
stress among teachers include less support by management, workload, overload
role, rising number of students and also poor discipline. A study reported that
stress among individuals can lead to many sleep difficulties such as mid-sleep
awakening, wake up too early in the morning and restless sleep (Almojali,
Almalki, Alothman, Masuadi & Alaqeel, 2017). Johnson et al. (2016) stated
that there is strong and constant relationship between psychosocial stress and
life stress with insomnia in healthy adults where the stress become a starting
point for an individual to have poor sleep quality. Sleep disturbances can
occur through psychological and physiological mechanism due to acute and
chronic stressors. Study from Alcántara et al. (2017) highlighted that only
chronic, moderate or severe stress maintained to be significantly associated
with symptoms of insomnia compare to socio-demographics, medical conditions,
and health behaviours. Snoring can be categorized as a health problem that
affects both men and women and it is a crucial marker of obstructive sleep
apnea (OSA). Individuals with OSA will experience repetitive apneas and
desaturations during sleep. If left untreated, it can impair the quality of
life of an individual. The authors conclude that less engagement in physical
activity is one of the risk factor for habituating snoring complaint, weight
gain, and alcohol dependent.

Physical activity is a good leisure to
participate because it can promote good sleep quality among adults (Youngstedt
& Kline, 2006). People who are engage in physical leisure activity tend to
have good sleep and can concentrate on daily tasks and not easily sleepy during
the day (Loprinzi and Cardinal, 2011). Wang, Sun & Zang (2014) have
conducted a study and they highlighted that by listening to the music, it that
can promote better sleep quality. Leisure questionnaire shows that listening to
many kind of music is one of the leisure activities that can be engaged by
individuals. According to Ruiz-Contreras et al., (2012), physical activity is
one of the leisure types that composed of few activities such as jogging,
cycling, gardening, hiking, dancing, and swimming. However, the exact
information about the intensity, duration, or type of physical activity is not
provided so that activity recommendations cannot be specified. Social leisure
activities such as visiting friends, volunteering activity and having support
groups can improve person’s sleep quality. Having positive support from other
people or the closest person can enhance better sleep quality while people with
declining social relationship has poor sleep quality (Stafford, Bendayan,
Tymoszuk & Kuh, 2017).